After Xinjiang Revelations, Germany's Ties to China Are Under the Microscope
spiegel.de
spiegel.de
I dont see how this Ukraine crisis is so much different from the west's invasions of Vietnam, Cuba, Iraq 1&2, Afghanistan, Libya, Syria and making Kosovo a sovereign state.
For example Iraq 1 started due to Saddam Hussain invade Kuwait.
... but it didn't start when he invaded Iran. i wonder why?!? (rhetorical question ofc).
And yes the UN is evil. But that's besides the point. What leverage do you think Iraq has in the UN, vs what the US has?
The reason why they are being promoted so heavily now is due to the changed relation between the US and China.
In fact the US used to drone bomb Uyghurs in Afghanistan and detain them away in Guantanamo.
In their numbers and variety, these documents put the debate over Chinese in a new context: They provide evidence that is impossible to ignore for politicians, business leaders and society in all countries that interact with China.
That's a classic ad hominem. It's also false that those are the only organizations that have found serious human rights issue in Xinjiang.
capitalism doesn't see countries as wrong. It's only political, public pressure that causes germany to capitulate and apply sanctions to russia.
Only Nixon could go to China [1]
The seeling of KUKA Robotics[2] to Chinese investors was probably a turning-point in Germany. The problem is that Germany only slowly recognizes that it was wrong. Especially parts of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) still believe in this "Wandel durch Annäherung" regarding Russia. And the same argument was used for China. Free trade doesn't make friends or peace, it is just exchange.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nixon_goes_to_China
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KUKA
PS: While politics shouldn't control every aspect of production a strategic control of essential industries makes sense. In this regard we could learn from China. Then we control under which conditions work is done.
But it is also exchange of knowledge, ideas, culture, morals and technology. It was trade that connected the world since ages and helped progress us all.
Nationalism on the other hand does not connect, but rather disconnects.
And goverment strategic control of essential industries? I am very sceptical that they can even identify the core essentials.
Because if this label means state protection and funding, then suddenly every industry will declare themself essential with the result, that those with the best connections to the politics, will win the race. Likely the car makers, VW and co.
https://www.spiegel.de/international/world/after-xinjiang-re...
How we delivered ourselves to China The Federal Republic is much more dependent on Beijing than on Moscow. After the torture disclosures by the Xinjiang Police Files, politicians must ask themselves: What crimes are we willing to accept for our prosperity?
Then a demand for membership payment
"The China shock: Germany turns away from its biggest trading partner": https://www.dw.com/en/the-china-shock-germany-turns-away-fro...
You sound like a machine-based text truncation is unacceptable.
But that's software developers' job, dude... Should we not do machine-based stuff at all because from time to time a harmless awkward situation pops up?
The result is a fatal dependence of Germany on China in both directions because the Western markets are pretty much saturated and as a result of two decades of globalization and market (i.e. labor cost) pressure local or alternative supply chains have long since shuttered. Politicians have been even too scared to act on hacking campaigns attributable directly to the Chinese government out of the fear that the industry powerhouses would "randomly" lose contracts or face other punishments - the fate of the two Canadians was a warning sign [2].
Now, with the change in government at the end of last year to a more left-centrist oriented government and the associated demise of importance of heavy-industry stooges in top politics as well as ever more leaks about just how draconian the Chinese government acts (the numerous videos on how people had literally to endure their doors being welded shut or their pets being slaughtered on the street during covid, and now the latest leaks on Xinjiang) and the complete screw-up of delivery chains are all but forcing a complete re-evaluation of very difficult questions on all levels:
- How long can Germany, the perpetrator of the Holocaust, keep ignoring what happens in Xinjiang, with concentration camps, genocide and forced labor allegations while claiming to have learned "never again" from the 1933-45 era?
- When delivery chains are broken anyway and will be so for a foreseeable future due to China's failure to link a zero-covid policy with actually working vaccines, what is the difference in cost to re-build supply chains somewhere sane (e.g. Vietnam or back in Europe) now or later?
- Is it safe for companies to invest in China, when the Chinese government can destroy their business with the stroke of a pen?
- How long can Germany keep quiet on Chinese industrial espionage?
- What to do with the Chinese "buying spree" of companies with national security/sovereignty interests like Kuka?
- How to react to China strong-arming itself into power across Africa and even in Europe by debt usury?
- How to prepare the industry and the country for the not-so-uncertain scenario that China invades Taiwan and as a result, there will likely be a decade of chip shortage when TSMC gets destroyed?
[1] https://www.zeit.de/politik/deutschland/2021-04/angela-merke...
That combined with the convenient "end of history" narrative coming out of the 90s, in which deep trade links and deregulation of the market would inevitably transform these regimes in China and Russia into postmodern liberal states. I suppose it makes sense that Merkel -- herself a produict of the collapse of the DDR -- would find herself believing this. But this convenient myth continued to pervade western governments long after it was clearly shown to be not true.
Here in Canada a couple decades has been wasted trying to orient energy exports towards the Asia-Pacific. Pipelines to Pacific coastal waters has been a constant battle with environmentalists and different government levels, but the stupid thing is it doesn't even make sense economically or geo-politically. Oil pipelines for bitumen and huge LNG terminals destined for the Pacific coast... or to the United States. The former is not a good strategic market anymore, and the latter doesn't need our oil. Turns out the strategic market for our LNG should have been Europe all along. And now too late to pivot.
Democracy comes from people in the streets demanding it, from the people. Not markets or trade. It's right in the name of the thing. Clearly democracy in the "west" is also under threat.
Leadership in the west is terrible. In the most extreme form of it... Vacilating between Crazy Trump and Ineffective Clintonites. Putin must be laughing.
Can we stop blaming an entire country for what a small percentage of the population did 80 years ago?
Not even this small percentage is alive anymore.
The Germans born after the WWII shitshow don't deserve this blaming. Not even most people who were alive 80 years ago.
No one blames today's Germans for the actions of our ancestors. However, there is an obligation for every human, but especially for us as their descendants to ensure that the events that happened in 1933-1945 - the organized extermination of six million Jews and of hundreds of thousands of other people the Nazis deemed unworthy (travellers, homosexuals, the disabled, political dissidents, ...) never happens again.
I recommend a visit to the KZ Dachau (maybe an hour of travel with public transport from Munich, I'd say it is the one that is reachable for foreigners the best due to its proximity to the airport) or one of the numerous other historic Nazi sites - not just to Germans, but to everyone. Only when you see the evidence of what happened, you can really grasp it.
What's going on in Xinjiang has nothing to do with the Holocaust. Nobody is being killed in Xinjiang, which makes the use of the word "genocide" laughable.
Part of "never again" is remembering what Germany did, and comparing what's happening in Xinjiang to the Holocaust is frankly outrageous and shameful.